The Secret to Making Your New Year's Resolutions Stick

The Secret to Making Your New Year's Resolutions Stick

It's that time of the year again time to make your New Year's resolutions list. Last year, you may have had one or more of these on your list of New Year's resolutions:1. Lose weight2. Get organized3. Spend less and save more4. Enjoy life to the fullest5. Stay fit and healthy These were the top 5 resolutions for 2016, Statistic Brain reveals. The problem is only 8% were successful in achieving their resolutions. Want it to be different this coming year? We suggest making this the first item on your resolutions list: making all items under resolution #1 stick!

1.Four Tricks to Achieve Your New Year's Resolution in 2017 Have specific goals

You may write something like, slim down or save money. But these are only vague goals that bring vague results. Be more specific. If you want to lose weight, you can be specific by actually putting the numbers there. An attainable goal for example can be Lose 5 lbs. every month for the next 6 months. Remember, just like in business, goals should be SMART specific, measurable, attainable and relevant and time-bound.

2. Be realistic

‍By being realistic, it only means that your goals shouldn't be too challenging that they would be impossible to achieve. An impossible goal would be aiming to go from size to 18 to 6 in just 30 days. Don't fall for diet fads that promise almost instantaneous results. Also, be realistic about the number of resolutions that you have. Ten major goals might be too much for one person to accomplish in a year. Limiting your resolutions to just two to three or even one makes them easier to do and to track, increasing your chances of succeeding.

3. Write them all down and talk to a friend about it

‍Write down your goals and display them on the wall or put them in a place where you can see them every single day. After doing this, talk to a loved one about your resolutions. Doing both inspires commitment. In addition to writing down your goals, record your progress too. Seeing actual progress will help motivate you.

4. Don't make it your goal to just quit

‍A very common mistake that many people make is making quitting a bad habit their goal. The problem here is bad habits are tough to break and willpower may often fail that is, if you don't event know why and how the bad habits started in the first place. Instead of making it a goal to quit, aim to understand yourself and your motivations more .For example, if you are planning to cut down on junk food, trace where this bad habit came from. Maybe you grew up in a family where junk food is a staple or maybe you have always found comfort in eating salty and sweet foods and so you tend to eat a lot of them when you're stressed. In this case, the more appropriate goal may be to find ways to better manage stress than to quit eating junk food. Understanding where these bad habits came from will help you get to the root cause of the problem so you can aim for the right goals .Keep these four things in mind before you come up with your New Year's Resolutions. Also, don't let small mistakes dampen your enthusiasm and cause you to give up. Always move forward and by the end of the year, you will be happy to see how much you have progressed with your goals.